Academic Quality Assurance (AQA)

The revised policy suite consists of:

• PPL 3.30.03 Programs, Plans and Courses Quality Assurance – Policy
• PPL 3.30.04 Annual Programs, Plans and Courses Quality Assurance – Procedure
• PPL 3.30.05 Academic Program Review – Procedure

Guidelines will be coming soon.

We understand that this timeline may require adjustment pending COVID-related interruptions to the remainder of the year. Any adjustments will be communicated to Faculties and Schools and updated on this website.

Diagram 2: Timeline (2021)

The purposes of Academic Quality Assurance for all programs, plans and courses offered at the University are to:

1. support the strategic objectives and regulatory requirements of the University
2. inform and assure the quality of academic offerings
3. support and enhance evidence-based decision making, on a cyclical basis
4. articulate the responsibilities of stakeholders in the quality assurance process.

The annual academic quality assurance process is guided by the following key principles:

• Programs, plans and courses (including shorter form credentials and pathway programs and courses) are reviewed on an annual basis according to the defined academic quality assurance indicators and informed by contextual data.
• Faculty and School staff may be asked to contextualise, further investigate, provide responses or develop action plans to address identified issues for programs, plans or courses.
• Responses and action plans will be submitted through the online response system.
• Consolidated Faculty reports are approved by the Executive Dean.
• The annual process must be completed by the end of each year.
• Data collected by the annual process must be incorporated into the report and resources for the subsequent year.

Diagram 3: Annual Academic Quality Assurance Process 2021

Planning and Business Intelligence (PBI) is responsible for updating the academic quality assurance reports for programs and courses with current data in UQ Reportal that Faculties and Schools can access:

• Prioritisation reports for relative annual performance of each program and course on each quality indicator to identify outliers.
• Detailed reports for detailed quality indicators and contextual data for each program and course.

The reports are accessible through UQ Reportal (UQ Reportal account required).

Training materials and videos are now accessible through the following links:

• Annual quality assurance process guide, pp. 7–16 (PDF, 1.4 MB)

Training videos:

• Video: Prioritisation reports (6m 16 s)
• Video: Detailed reports (4m 5s)

The periodic Academic Program Review process is underpinned by the following key principles:

• There is one UQ Academic Program Review process that accommodates all programs.
• The Academic Program Review process aligns with the size, sustainability, and complexity of the program.
• That decision-making relating to Academic Program Reviews, including generalist degrees and programs administered across faculties, is undertaken in accordance with the University’s schedule of academic delegations to ensure that decisions are made at the next higher level of academic oversight (the “Appropriate Authorised Delegate”).
• That stakeholder input is sought and considered throughout every stage of the Review process and includes both student and external perspectives.
• That Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledges and perspectives are considered during the Academic Program Review process.

Diagram 4: Academic Program Review Process (download the PDF to see a larger version)

Responses and proposed action plans for programs and courses will be documented in the online response system. The responses are viewable only by a person who submitted the response, by Faculty executive, and by selected support staff.

The online response system will be open from September to November, following which ITaLI will consolidate the responses and produce the annual AQA Consolidated Faculty and School Reports.

Training materials and videos are now accessible through the following links:

• Annual quality assurance process guide, pp. 17–21

Training videos:

• Video: Requesting response (2m 11s)
• Video: Responding (1m 38s)
• Video: Approving response (1m 3s)